Tag Archives: outdoors

Facing the Elements: Joshua Tree Backpacking in a Rain Storm

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Join me for 3 days of Backpacking, Hiking and Desert Camping in the Rain while  exploring California’s Joshua Tree National Park.

For this winter desert camping adventure, I decided to do a solo backpacking trip in Southern California’s Joshua Tree National Park.  I chose the Maze zone as my primary area of exploration, with the added possibility of hiking along the storied Boy Scout Trail as well.

Due to backcountry camping permit regulations, I chose to obtain a permit for camping within the Maze Zone, with the possibility of hiking into and exploring the Boy Scout Zone by day.  This was mostly due to the fact that the Boy Scout Zone is the only JNP zone that requires you to specifically get a permit for 1 of 8 specific campsites, and I wanted to have some more flexibility to choose my campsites on the fly.

Getting a permit for the Maze zone allowed me to camp anywhere I wanted as long as I was at least 1 mile from an official trailhead, one half mile from any road, and 200 feet from any trail.  Prefect – that sounded like exactly the solitude I was looking for.

Being February in the Mojave Desert, my expected temperature range would be from roughly 40 to 75 degrees or so.  What about rain, you ask?  Well, 336 days out of the year, the answer would be a solid – “No need for rain gear over here!”.  I apparently arrived on one of those 29 other days.  No worries though. I think it provided a pretty unique opportunity to see the Mojave Desert during one of it’s most vital times for survival of plants and animals in this arid environment – a desert rain storm curtesy of El Niño.

For sleep and shelter, I packed in my Outdoor Vitals Fortius trekking pole tent, a 3-season sleeping pad and my Hammock Gear 40° down quilt.  Reliable drinking water is pretty much non-existent in Joshua Tree National Park regardless of the season, so I was tasked with packing in all of my drinking water for the entire 3 day trip.  For this reason, I decided to skip the usual dehydrated backpacking meal choices in favor of some cheap and easy ready to eat food options.

I also opted to ditch the stove and just go the no-cook backpacking food route, because why not?   Honestly, my pack was jammed to the hilt with water, and I just wasn’t in the mood to carry more fuel and cooking supplies.

Route Overview – Smoky Mountains Little River Gorge Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

A permit is required for backcountry camping in Joshua Tree National Park.  You can reserve them on the Joshua Tree National Park website here.

Full GPS track data, including campsites, water sources, etc, for this trip and many others can be downloaded on my Trip Data Page.

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My Wife Dropped me at the Mexican Border – Yuma County Backpacking

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3 Days of Desert Camping and Backpacking in Yuma County Arizona.

For this backpacking trip, I headed even farther south to a remote corner of Arizona not too far from border with with Mexico in an area known as the Kofa Wilderness.

For sleep and shelter I brought an ultralight trekking pole tent, 3-season inflatable sleeping pad, and a 40 degree sleeping bag, as the forecasted temperature range for this December adventure would range fro highs in the eighties down to as low as the upper 30’s depending on wind conditions and where I chose to set up camp in the vast array of mountains and valleys found in this corner of the American Southwest.

My choices for camping food on this backpacking trip would be pretty simple – mostly because there are no reliable water sources in this desolate sampling of the Sonoran Desert. Since I would have to pack in and carry all of my own drinking water from the start, there was little reason to spend money and effort on traditional dehydrated backpacking meals.

Instead I chose to hit the local dollar store for some calorie dense, if not nutritionally diminished, food sources. The end result? 3 days worth of calories for under twenty bucks, and no water or stove required. …there will plenty of opportunities to eat salad back in civilization. If I manage to get back there…

Trailhead Used:
King Road Access, 1/4 mile north of Yuma Customs Checkpoint on AZ Rt 95

Trails Used, Day 1

  • Horse Tanks Jeep Trail
  • None

Trails Used, Day 2

  • None
  • Random animal trail (?)
  • None

Trails Used, Day 3

  • None
  • Kofa Horse Tanks
  • None
  • King Road

 

 

Backpacking the Smoky Mountains – Wind, Rain & Solo Camping

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Join me for 3 days of Winter Camping, Backpacking & Hiking in the Smoky Mountains. 

For this winter camping adventure, I decided to do a solo backpacking loop along the Little River Gorge in Tennessee’s western region of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The Little River is flanked to the south by Meigs Mountain and to the north by Sugarland Mountain.  By hiking trails along the ridges of both these mountains, I was able to create a 25 mile loop with 6,000 feet of gross elevation gain.

On the first night, I chose to camp on top of Meigs Mountain at campsite 19, Upper Henderson.  On day two I planned to descend into the gorge to camp along the Little River at campsite 21. On the third day, I would hike up Sugarland Mountain towards Laurel Falls and ultimately, Little Brier Gap to complete the loop.

For sleep and shelter, I packed in my Outdoor Vitals Fortius trekking pole tent, a 3-season sleeping pad and my Hammock Gear 20° down quilt.  Despite it being the middle winter, my temp range was relatively mild with lows in the 40’s and highs touching the mid 60’s.  This allowed me to leave my extra cold weather clothing layers at home, so I was still able to use my ultralight backpack instead of the larger pack that I typically use for winter.  Days 2 and 3 had a forecast of rain and high winds, so I played it safe and packed in full set rain gear as well.

Route Overview – Smoky Mountains Little River Gorge Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

A backcountry permit is required for all campsites in this area. You can reserve them for $8 per night on the Smoky Mountains National Park website here.

Full GPS track data, including campsites, water sources, etc, for this trip and many others can be downloaded on my Trip Data Page.

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Beginner Backpacking – Campfire Cooking & Abandoned Hotels on Echo Lake

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3 Days of Camping and Backpacking on Echo Lake in the Catskill Mountains.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through some of my links.

For this backpacking trip, we headed up to New York’s Catskill Mountains for 3 days of campfire cooking, mountaintop abandoned hotel exploration and lakeside camping with crew consisting of a wide range of experience levels – all the way from 10 years to a very first backpacking trip.

Our Late Fall temperature range for this trip was between 35° and 70° without a chance of rain until the latter half of the trip.  With the possibility of rain on our last day hike out, and the addition of some fun comfort items like a stool, firewood saw and some other surprise goodies, my base weight was a little over my typical sub-10lb base weight for this particular trip.

Mike and I went with hammock camping setups for this backpacking trip, while Mike’s son and his friend decided to share a Nemo 3 person tent. Our  plan was to do our 3 day trip basecamp style by snagging a decent campsite alongside Echo lake and remaining there for both nights.  This would allow us to do a day hike up towards Indian Head Mountain on the ridge lighter daypacks.  This also gave us the advantage of returning to a campsite that was already setup if our hike back ended up taking longer than expected.

Water would be plentiful at basecamp due to the nearby lake, but their is beaver activity in the area, so water filtration and / or treatment is strongly encouraged.  There is also a stream that feeds the pond not to far from where the spur trail for the Echo Lake Shelter begins.  Our chosen campsite was on the opposite side of the lake, so went the filtration route with my Katadyn BeFree water filer system.

Full GPS track data, including campsites, etc, for this trip Sintax77 and many others can be downloaded on my Trip Data Page.

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Solo Backpacking on Mt Passaconaway – 3 Days of Camping in New Hampshire

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Join me for 3 Days Ultralight Backpacking on Mt Passaconaway, deep in the Wilderness of New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

Join me for 3 Days Ultralight Backpacking on Mt Passaconaway in the White Mountains, deep in the wilderness of New Hampshire.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through some of my links.

For this 3 day, 2 night backpacking trip, I decided to spend a few days exploring Mt Passaconaway, a 4,000 footer nestled in the Sandwich Range Wilderness of of New Hampshire.

My plan for this trip wasn’t to crush miles, but to instead slow things down and really have a chance to get an intimate look at a smaller area, something I often don’t always do. With it’s combination of a hardwood populated rolling lowland approach hugging the beautiful Oliverian Brook at 1,200′ elevation, followed by a short, but steep rocky ascent up to the ridges leading to the summit of Mt Passaconaway at 4,043 feet, it seemed like the perfect choice for such a trip.

I would spend my first day looking for a suitable break in the dense foliage to camp along the babbling sounds of Oliverian Brook for the night. On day two I would head up towards the summit in search of a clearing just short of the summit to the previous sight of an old lean-to shelter called Camp Rich.  The shelter was removed many years ago, and is no longer listed on newer maps.  According to reports though, there are still some great clearings for camping in the area, which is a rarity at higher elevations in the White Mountains.  Allegedly, there is a rather reliable water source running nearby as well.  Again, a rarity near tree line in the Whites.

My backpack was pretty light for this adventure, consisting of only my trekking pole tent, trekking poles, a single titanium pot with DIY alcohol stove for cooking, a simple foam sleeping pad, 40° down quilt, hardshell jacket, and a mid-layer synthetic hoodie for extra warmth, as the daily low was expected to be in the upper 30’s Fahrenheit. This was pushing it a bit, but I’ve found that the hoodie and hardshell combination works pretty well as a cold weather parka down to around the mid 30’s.  A more detailed list of backpacking gear can be found below.

Despite a temporary minor lower back muscle injury that slowed me down a bit from my normal pace, this ended up being a really fun backpacking trip.  It gave me an opportunity to appreciate the merits of spending more time soaking in a single area at camp or along the trail, rather than hiking triple the miles to hit multiple summits.  While I really enjoy doing hikes like that too, it was pretty awesome to appreciate the character of a single mountain and the random treasures it had to offer.

Route Overview White Mountains Mt Passaconaway Backpacking Trip- Sintax77

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Summer Backpacking – Fog, Rain & Shelter on the Old Loggers Path

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3 days of Backpacking, Trekking Pole Tent Camping and Lean-to Shelter Camping on the Old Loggers Path.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through some of my links.

For this 3 day, 2 night summer backpacking trip, I decided to revisit the OLP in Pennsylvania’s Loyalsock State forest.  The OLP is a 27 mile backpacking loop along babbling brooks, waterfalls, hardwoods and hemlocks. I previously did this loop counter-clockwise as a solo hike a couple of years ago, but there was so much to soak in that I decided it would be worth hiking it again. This time I would hike it clockwise with my buddy Dave from Outdoor Vitals, who recently moved out to Pennsylvania from Utah.

Dave had never camped in a lean-to shelter before, so we targeted the Sprout Point shelter for our first night, followed by some tent camping along the confluence of Rock Run and Yellow dog run on the second night.  This would also be my first time experimenting with an ultralight trekking pole tent, so I was looking forward to trying that out.

Our weather ranged from highs in the upper 70’s with fairly high humidity, and lows in the upper 60’s.  This allowed me to save weight by packing a lightweight 40° quilt and leaving my extra warm clothing layers at home.  There was a possibility of rain each day though, so I packed in full rain gear. I also brought a folding saw and some other comfort items, so my base weight was still right around 10 lbs despite the warm forecast.

Trail conditions on the OLP are a mix of nice flat dirt sections, punctuated by spurts of steep sections littered with Pennsylvania’s infamous rocks to keep you on your toes ; literally.  Despite the occasional rough sections, the average daily gross elevation gain was only around 1,500 feet per day. Potential water sources are fairly plentiful on the Old Loggers Path, but the key word is potential. When I went before in spring, I got by with only carrying around 1 liter of water at a time.  This time around things were very dry, so the only water sources we used were the two that are always flowing – Pleasant Valley Stream and the Rock Run / Yellow Dog Run confluence.

Route Overview – Old Loggers Path Clockwise Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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